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First flight on this day in 1970. Of course, the prototype would be lost on its second flight due to a hydraulic failure.
First flight on this day in 1970. Of course, the prototype would be lost on its second flight due to a hydraulic failure.
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Would never have happened if Adm. Thomas Connolly hadn’t killed off the Navy’s version of the F-111 (killed his career too). Here are some links:
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675041093_Admiral-Connolly_fighter-aircrafts_swing-wing-design_F-14-Tomcat
Think of it as a time when GOFOs exhibited real leadership qualities. We may never see his like again.
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I’ll take sexiest jet fighter, because have you seen a P-38 in late-war metal finish and D-Day invasion stripes?
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I only started reading lex just before he died.
Why did he not like the Tomcat? Did he prefer the hornet?
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There’s a long standing (mostly) good natured rivalry between the Hornet and Tomcat communities. Or, further back, between the fighter and attack communities. Or between aviation, surface, and submarine communities.
Or between the Navy and the Marine Corps. Or between the sea services and the Army and the Air Force.
In a tactical sense, Lex could deliver a fair, balance critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the Tomcat or the Hornet. Or any other platform, from an analytical, dispassionate point of view.
But in the O’Club, he (like every other Bug driver in the fleet) would have been loathe to admit any social graces or glimmer of intellect to any member of the Tomcat community, and especially heap opprobrium on those Naval Aviators so marginal as to need an assistant in the back seat.
A special jet…played a big part in my 24 years in the USN. My heroes are still, “Ho Chi”, “Rat” and “Barrel”
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XBradTC 
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